Shaquille O’Neal might be the most dominant center of his generation, however, he certainly wasn’t known for shooting threes. In his 19-season NBA career, the Big Aristotle attempted 22 three-pointers and could bury only one. Shaq also had an abysmal free-throw percentage of just 52.7% throughout his entire career. But the big fella still seems to be keen to embrace his role as the ‘Black Steph Curry’.
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Well, the big men in the NBA have always struggled shooting historically, before the advent of the Victor Wembanyamas of the world. Former Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert also have an incredibly poor record in shooting threes.
A recent ESPN post on Instagram pitted these three torchbearers of bad shooting against each other in a three-point competition, asking fans who would bag the first basket. Not an easy question to answer.
Shaquille O’Neal loves to engage with NBA fans actively on social media, as is evident from his frequent Instagram posts and stories. Replying to the post in comments, the Big Diesel unequivocally claimed himself to be the first among the three to bag a three. “Me,” he wrote in the comments, cutting straight to the chase.
Interestingly, this could be easily contested if we compare the stats of Rudy Gobert and Yao Ming. Though Rudy Gobert has not made any three-pointers in his career, he is actively working to improve on the same. Shaq’s only competition be Yao Ming in this group, who had a decent 83.3% free-throw percentage in his career. Perhaps, converting the same from the three-point line, Ming could pose a tough challenge to overcome for Shaq in this competition.
However, Shaq has improved his shooting substantially in the past few years, after retiring from the NBA.
Shaquille O’Neal has called himself the ‘Black Stephen Curry’ on several occasions
Despite Stephen Curry being African-American, Shaquille O’Neal loves to dub himself the ‘Black Stephen Curry.’ Since his retirement, Shaq has attempted many shots and has also converted some of them. The Big Diesel eloquently announced during the 2019 All-Star event, “Well, I am known as the black Steph Curry…Steph Curry is light-skinned, I’m black.”
Once again, while touring as DJ Diesel with his son Myles O’Neal, Shaq reclaimed his nickname as the ‘Black Steph Curry,’ only to receive a reality check from Stephen Curry’s mother, Sonya Curry. In the comments of Shaq’s post, Sonya Curry hilariously pointed out, “Hold up…my son is Black…how about ‘Dark skinned Steph!!!” Well, it definitely seemed like momma curry was in approval of Shaq comparing himself to her 4x NBA champion son.
Though his official career numbers do signify his weakness in shooting, Shaq was a beast during practice sessions for the 1996 FIBA World Cup. The official NBA Twitter account once posted a video of the big man showing off his range from the deep during the USAB training camp in the 1990s.
Shaq was showing off his range at @usabasketball practice in 1996
USAB training camp is underway now ahead of the @FIBAWC pic.twitter.com/QcSVzM63o3
— NBA (@NBA) August 3, 2023
Shaq isn’t entirely wrong in making such a huge claim for himself, especially against the likes of Rudy Gobert and Yao Ming.
